Troitsko-Pechorsk

Troitsko-Pechorsk stands on the left bank of the Pechora at the mouth of the Severnaya Mylva. Legend says a Trinity monastery — the Pechora hermitage — was founded at this confluence in the late 14th century; there is no documentary proof, but the documented history began in 1674, when Komi peasants founded the Kuzminsky hamlet. The name came with the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity of 1707: Troitsky Pogost — Troitsko-Pechorsk. The settlement is the edge of Komi's railway: a dead-end branch from Sosnogorsk ends here. In the 19th century the village became a centre of Pechora timber — local wood was exhibited at the 1862 World Exhibition in London — and in the Civil War it saw the Troitsko-Pechorsk uprising and one of the last battles on Komi soil. Today it is the gateway to the north-east of the region: the road to the Pechora-Ilych Reserve with its moose farm and legendary rock pillars starts here. The settlement lives by timber and the river — and is worth a pause before the further journey.